Jim Himes: ‘Extremists’ made government shutdown

Rep. Jim Himes said Tuesday that if the precedent set by the “30 or 40 extremists” who led to the government shutdown stands, you might see a budget held up over tin hats.

“Think about the precedent. What’s next? What if the Democratic extreme said, ‘Well we’re not going to sign a budget unless you do away with assault weapons?’ What if we’re not going to have a budget unless 20 people around here decide that everybody under the age of 40 should wear a tin hat around?” the Connecticut Democrat said on MSNBC on Tuesday. “This is not the way you govern a great country.”

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Himes said both sides agree on the budget number for a government funding bill that failed to pass both houses of Congress, so the budget is being held hostage over a handful of lawmakers who want to eliminate Obamacare.

“It is being driven by 30 or 40 extremists who are holding not just the country, but the speaker of the House and the ability to govern this country, hostage at this point,” Himes said.

As more stories of how the government shutdown is affecting people come out like the WWII veterans who bypassed barricades to see their monument or the employees furloughed, Himes said, he hopes the message will get through that even though lawmakers represent their constituents, there’s still a need for compromise.

“Hopefully it will get through the thick skulls of a number of people in this building that the antics, the ideology, the political name-calling is actually hurting real people,” Himes said. “And so at some point the 30 or 40 people here who are creating, visiting great harm on this country have got to be sat down and told that they should represent their people, God bless them, they should do that, but this is a government that relies on compromise.”

The government shut down on Tuesday after the House and Senate failed to reach agreement on a bill to fund the government past a midnight deadline. The Senate and White House have pushed a clean continuing resolution, while the House has passed funding bills targeting Obamacare.